QUETTA, Pakistan — A government spokesman says authorities have found the bodies of five more Pakistanis who were apparently planning to cross into Iran on their way to Europe to seek work as migrant labourers.

Anwarul Haq Kakar, the spokesman for the Baluchistan government says the bodies were found Saturday in Turbat district, 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) southwest of the city of Quetta.

He says apparently the men were part of a group that included 15 men from the Punjab province who were killed earlier this week by a separatist group.

The discovery comes a day after the Pakistan army said troops had killed a Baluch separatist commander involved in the slaying of 15 men from Punjab in Baluchistan, where separatist groups have waged a low-level insurgency.